CHAPTER VI. THEATRE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.--TRANSLATIONS FROM THE FRENCH.--ORIGINAL PLAYS.--OPERAS.--NATIONAL THEATRE.--CASTRO.--AÑORBE.--IMITATIONS OF THE FRENCH THEATRE.--MONTIANO.--MORATIN THE ELDER.--CADAHALSO.--SEBASTIAN Y LATRE.--TRIGUEROS.--YRIARTE.--AYALA.--HUERTA.--JOVELLANOS.--AUTOS FORBIDDEN.--PUBLIC THEATRES AND THEIR PARTIES.--RAMON DE LA CRUZ, SEDANO, CORTÉS, CIENFUEGOS, AND OTHERS.--HUERTA’S COLLECTION OF OLD PLAYS.--DISCUSSIONS.--VALLADARES.--ZAVALA.--COMELLA.--MORATIN THE YOUNGER.--STATE OF THE DRAMA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The most considerable literary movement of the eighteenth century in Spain, and the one that best marks the poetical character of the entire period, is that relating to the theatre, which it was earnestly attempted to subject to the rules then prevailing on the French stage. Intimations of such a design are found in the reign of Philip the Fifth, as soon as the War of the Succession was closed. The Marquis of San Juan began, in 1713, with a translation of the “Cinna” of Corneille;--the first tragedy under the French rules that appeared in the Spanish language, and one that was probably selected for this distinction, because it was well suited to the condition of a country, that had so much reason to seek the clemency of its prince in favor of many distinguished persons, whom the civil war had led to resist his power.[365] But it was never represented, and was soon forgotten. Cañizares, the last of the elder race of dramatists that showed any of the old spirit, yielded more than once to the new school of taste, and regarded his “Sacrifice of Iphigenia”--an absurd play, for which the “Iphigénie” of Racine is very little responsible--as an imitation of the French school.[366] Neither these, however, nor plays of an irregular and often vulgar cast, like those written by Diego de Torres, professor of natural philosophy, by Lobo, the military officer, and by Salvo, the tailor, obtained any permanent favor, or were able to constitute foundations on which to reconstruct a national drama. As far as any thing was heard on the public stage worthy of its pretensions, it was the works of the old masters and of their poor imitators, Cañizares and Zamora.[367] [365] Montiano y Luyando, Discurso de la Tragedia, Madrid, 1750, 12mo, p. 66.